Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal
BUCKEYE LAKE, Ohio — AUGUST 17: Marijuana plants in a flowering room where the artificial sunlight is adjusted to stimulate growth of the flowers, August 17, 2023, at PharmaCann, Inc.’s cultivation and processing facility in Buckeye Lake, Ohio.
Despite what some of the truest of believers might contend, legalization of marijuana would come with costs to Ohioans. But an economic analysis that was released last week found that the benefits would outweigh those costs by a quarter-billion dollars a year.
Issue 2, an initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana for people over 21 in Ohio, is on the ballot in next Tuesday’s election.
A study by Columbus-based Scioto Analysis attempts to identify the pluses and minuses that would come with such a move in a state where medical marijuana is already legal.
To do the analysis, the group used studies from states such as Washington and Colorado, where recreational weed has long been the law. To examine how the pros and cons identified in those states might play out in Ohio, the researchers looked at economic and census data, as well as at crime statistics.
The biggest benefit they identified has to do with the extra revenue passage of Issue 2 would produce, with its 10% excise tax on top of Ohio’s normal sales tax. But the report explains that the benefit isn’t merely from the $190 million a year legalization is expected to…
